Analyst sees new iPad design in April 2013

Rumors and reports continue to circulate in the technology world, with many of them inevitably focusing on Apple.

A number of related rumors, reports and speculation actually turned out to be true in recent months, with Cupertino ultimately launching an iPad Mini, as per the predictions of multiple analysts.

The latest Apple rumor? Research firm Piper Jaffray recently stated that it expects a Cupertino-sponsored media event by April.

The research firm also says the event will likely showcase new iPad body (form factor) styles.

"We believe that looking at the history of time between Apple product launch events suggests that the company will introduce something new in March or April," Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients on Friday. "Over the past two years, the Spring event has been iPad updates."

Munster figures that even though the iPad mini launched officially in October, an update to the full-size iPad could be unveiled in April. Munster figures the iPad unveiled at the event will be an updated full-size iPad because it only received minor improvements in October with the launch of the iPad mini.

"We believe Apple could update the full-sized iPad to a body style similar to the iPad Mini. Additionally, we believe that the iPad Mini could get a Retina display, although that may happen later in the year given the supply constraints Apple faced on the Mini in the December quarter."

Munster even did some math on the timeframe between various Apple events, tracking major products going all the way back to June of 2009.

He said, "The average time between the events has been 123 days, about 4 months. The longest amount of time between events since the 3GS launch in 2009 was 216 days (about 7 months), which was the gap between the iPad 2 launch in March 2011 and the iPhone 4S launch in October 2011."

Munster also estimates that we could see an updated Apple TV set-top box at the April event.